Songs of Wild Birds [with] More Songs of Wild Birds [5 Gramophone records]

Description:

Two boxed sets, the first containing two and the second three 10" vinyl gramophone records (78 r.p.m.) of British bird songs, each with an accompanying book: Songs (seventh impression, 1948, first published 1936); More Songs (third impression, 1945, first published 1937), with photographs by Oliver G. Pike and others. Recordings are: Songs: Disc 1, Side A (E.7771): 1. Nightingale; 2. Cuckoo. Disc 1, Side B (E.7772): 1. Blackbird; 2. Throstle; 3(a). Pied Woodpecker (Drum), (b) Green Woodpecker. Disc 2, Side A (E.7774): 1. Robin; 2. Wren; 3. Dunnock; 4. Turtledove; 5. Woodpigeon. Disc 2, Side B (E.7773): 1. Chaffinch; 2. Willow-Warbler; 3. Whitethroat; 4. Great Tit. More Songs Disc 1, Side A (E.8471): 1. Skylark in the Air; 2. Skylark on the Ground; 3. Curlew. Disc 1, Side B (E.8536): 1. Woodlark; 2. Tree-Pipit. Disc 2, Side A (E.8535): 1. Redstart; 2. Blue-Tit; 3. Willow-Tit; 4. Chiffchaff. Disc 2, Side B (E.8484): 1. Mistle Thrush; 2. Stock-Dove; 3. Heron; 4. Nightjar. Disc 3, Side A (E.8473) 1. Wood-Wren; 2. Blackcap; 3. Garden-Warbler. Disc 3, Side B (E.8483): 1. Little Owl; 2. Carrion Crow; 3. Jackdaw; 4. Jay; 5. Magpie; 6. Rook.

Early example of a multimedia box set. Each box contains a book and accompanying gramophone recordings of British bird song. This was the first ‘sound-book’ of British birds.

The wild-life sound recording pioneer Ludwig Karl Koch (1881-1974) was born in Frankfurt am Main, Germany. He fled the Nazis in 1936, escaping to England. Sir Julian Huxley introduced him to the publisher Harry F. Witherby. Collaborating with ornithologist Edward Max Nicholson (1904-2003), who provided text for the books, and the Parlophone Company, who provided the technical recording equipment, the box set Songs of Wild Birds was produced in 1936 followed by More Songs of Wild Birds in 1937. Julian Huxley, in his introduction to Songs of Wild Birds, emphasised the revolutionary development stating, ‘in spite of the rise of the gramophone industry publishers have been slow to realise the possibility of combining words with illustrations in the form of sound. Messrs. Witherby are to be congratulated on having been the first British publishers to combine the two, although the initial step was first taken in Germany.’

Condition

Two original boxed sets, slightly rubbed, printed title labels to lids, containing book: small 8vo, cloth, inset in card support, and five shellac records in sleeves. From an institutional library with ink stamp inside box lid. Good. One box label has the name of the music educationalist, R.M. Thackeray.